I've decided I like having two companions, and there might not be a better combination than Donna and Martha. They don't get a lot of time to interact here, but the few moments they do get are just lovely. With Rose out of the picture there's no jealousy, and it's nice to have two women know the Doctor without feeling they have to fight over him.
It is just nice to see Martha again. In the old days companions never ever came back (apart from Tegan, and that doesn't really count) but these days everybody returns. I have a pet theory that the first goodbye is always the best, but we'll look at that in The Doctor's Daughter. And Journey's End, The End of Time, and The God Complex or The Angels Take Manhattan. Anyway, it is nice to see Martha. Her return doesn't pose any awkward questions, or unbalance the show's equilibrium, or throw the story off in an odd direction. We just get to see that she is fine and happy, engaged to her lovely Doctor Tom, and working for UNIT. As breakups go, this has turned out to pretty well. It's just a slight shame that she is so quickly sidelined. Although it's fun (both for us and, presumably, for Freema Agyeman) to have Evil Martha running rings around UNIT command, I would have liked her and Donna to get more time together.
But there are niceties to be observed: Donna is the incumbent companion and rightly gets more attention. She gets multiple opportunities to impress - "I'll take a salute"; showing off her temp powers in the ATMOS office; impassively waiting for the Doctor to realise he is barking up the wrong tree with his eloquent "You're leaving" speech; catching up with her grandfather and happily enduring her mother; pragmatically puncturing the Doctor's next big speech, snatching the TARDIS key from him as she tries to escape the poisonous fog. Her greatest moment is aboard the Sontaran ship. Alone and desperately out of her depth, the Doctor pushes her to step out from the safety of the TARDIS. She manages to get the job done despite her own fears and rises even further in our estimation as a result.
There are so many things to like. Early on there's a simply brilliant shot through the TARDIS doors with Donna still impossibly deep inside the Console Room. David Tennant is on excellent form; now in his third series, his performance feels effortless and the Doctor is so much fun to be around, whether he's taking out Field Marshall Staal with a squash ball, bickering with Colonel Mace, out-pedanting Rattigan, bonding with Ross, or coldly keeping an eye on turncoat clone Martha. The Doctor isn't without his contradictions though: he rails against UNIT's penchant for violent military solutions and makes a point of not carrying any guns - but he still charges onto the Sontaran ship with a home weapon and the intent to kill everyone aboard. Of course here, as with a lot of other nasty decisions, he hesitates just long enough for someone else to decide to sacrifice themselves instead. For all that, it says something about the momentum of this story that it struck me that the Doctor really could die doing this - I know he won't (and not just because I've seen this one before), but even making such an outcome a credible theoretical possibility is an achievement.
The Sontarans are very good here, and show why they deserved to come back. If nothing else, they are clearly delineated from other villainous races. Visually, they retain their unique facial appearance, regain their distinctive fingers and stature, and are improved further by a strong redesign of their uniforms. The proper martial characteristics are all present and correct, and there's no fuzzy emotional overlap with the Daleks or Cybermen: we know, from everything they say and do, that the Sontarans are all about war. Staal is genuinely aggrieved that his race was kept out of the Time War and, rather touchingly, seems to think that defeating the Doctor will mean the Sontarans somehow won that conflict, rather like Scotland beating England in 1967 and claiming to be world champions.
Of course, these two aren't the only belligerents in this conflict and it is rather pleasing that the Sontarans get to go up against the new souped-up UNIT, especially seeing as the humans defy all alien expectations and kick some extraterrestrial bottom. The counter-attack that begins with the descent of the Valiant (thank you Mr Saxon) is one of the most gung-ho moments in the entirety of Doctor Who and, unlike many of Eric Saward's bust-ups, it still manages to delight, not only us, but the Doctor himself, as Colonel Mace notes. If this new relationship doesn't quite have the chemistry of Pertwee and Courtney, at least it captures the old sense that these two respect each other despite their disagreements.
This two-parter is really very good, but it seems to be a little forgotten - overshadowed maybe by the epic climax of Series Four, or by the way Strax has become such a dominant version of the Sontarans during the last year or two. It's a shame because this story shows that they really do deserve to be considered among the top rank of returning baddies, and that they are definitely worthy of a season finale all of their own.
Still there is an odd moment or two - the clone race seems to have retained some vestigial sexism, and neither Israel or Russia appear on Captain Price's list of co-operating nuclear nations, although North Korea does! Almost as confusing as one of the boys cheering "Harriet Jones!" when Kirsty Wark turned up. Chris eventually gave both parts ten out of ten, but I had to talk him up from a nine on The Sontaran Stratagem: initially he had wanted to take off a point because he didn't believe Rattigan could have invented all those gadgets. Not unreasonable, really.
NEXT TIME...
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